Tourists at the Plaza de los Naranjos, next to the cathedral in Malaga. Salvador Salas

Costa del Sol hotels almost 90% full for long May Day holiday weekend

Benalmádena leads the destinations with the most bookings, followed by Torremolinos, Mijas and Malaga city

Pilar Martínez

Malaga

Wednesday, 26 April 2023, 23:21

After a record Holy and Easter week in Malaga province hotels are gearing up for another wave of tourists, this time on the May Day long holiday weekend.

Data provided by the association of hotelieres on the Costa del Sol (Aehcos) is predicting a high occupancy rate in the first holiday of spring with around 88.3% of the hotel beds expected to be filled.

There are already so many reserved beds that many hotels are ready to hang up 'no vacancies' signs.

The hoteliers' forecasts indicated they were registering 8.6% more beds reserved, compared to figures recorded for the same time last year. International travellers would account for 65% of the visitors set to visit the Costa del Sol over the long weekend.

Benalmádena leads the bookings on 1 May with 97% of beds full, followed by Torremolinos, with almost 92%, Mijas (89.5%), Malaga city (87.7%), according to the data.

Aehcos president José Luque said the figures showed tourism was recovering to pre-pandemic occupancy levels.

"Although this is positive data, we cannot fail to show our concern for the profitability of the establishments, which has been hurt by inflation in recent months, the rise in the minimum wage, the increase in Social Security contributions paid by companies, and the rise in interest rates for hotels that have contracted financing".

Hotel occupancy has been 69.9% in the first four months of this year, with April being the month that recorded the best figure, with 82.9%. This is a 6.4% rise compared to the same time period in 2019.

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